OTHERS MAY; YOU CANNOT

-Author Unknown.
Reblogged from servehiminthewaiting.wordpress.com

IF God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into
a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands
of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or
measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will
seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful,
may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out
their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will
meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you
sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes,
of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any
such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep
mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have
a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor,
because He wants you to have something far better than gold,
namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the
privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep
you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some
choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be
produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you
small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for
it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how
much you are doing; and then to make your work still more
precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have
done, and thus make YOUR REWARD TEN Times GREATER
When JESUS COMES.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love,
and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your
time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. SO make
up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a
right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to
you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings
with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave,
He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many
blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY WITH
THE HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying
your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways
that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are
so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret
heart, pleased and delighted over this PECULIAR, PERSONAL,
PRIVATE, JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP and MANAGEMENT OF
the HOLY SPIRIT OVER YOUR LIFE, then you will have found
the vestibule of Heaven.

WHEN YOU ARE forgotten, neglected, or purposefully set at
naught, and you smile inwardly, glorying in the insult or the
oversight, because thereby you are counted worthy to suffer with
Christ, THAT IS VICTORY.

WHEN YOUR GOOD is evil spoken of, when your wishes are
crossed, when your taste is offended, when your advise is
disregarded, when your opinions are ridiculed, and you take it
all in patient, loving silence, THAT IS VICTORY.

WHEN YOU ARE content with any food, raiment, climate,
society, solitude,or any interruption by the will of God, THAT
IS VICTORY.

Christmas meditation on the Eternal Spring of God's Heart

Christmas meditation on the Eternal Spring of God's Heart

Flowering almond tree

 http://www.elmundo.es/traductor/

As people celebrate Christmas with all the symbols regardless of the exact time and year of God's divine condescension among us, this is what this season represents to me as a reality.

As I was reflecting upon the incarnation of our Savior Christ Jesus as the supreme gift of our Heavenly Father to mankind, I could not help but thinking of the limited perspective that we sometimes have of the infinite measure of all of God’s attributes and works in the vast universe He created but also in each of our lives.

The first thing I consider when I ponder the miracle of the supernatural birth of Christ is that God chose to manifest His presence in the flesh as a seed of the Holy Spirit in the chosen womb of Mary. Imagine a little! The creator and sustainer of the endless universe becoming a frail human being Himself subject to the natural law of human birth.
What is amazing is that as we follow the course of His birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and His coming back to take His own faithful ones to reign with Him, the same characteristic stages apply to us who have experienced the second spiritual birth and have passed from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous light. As the mature tree is essentially contained in the seed just waiting to develop through the different stages of growth, so was the life of the Lord Jesus and so is everyone of our lives.

An illustration from the sharing of presents on Christmas day came to mind. Imagine one of the present being a huge box with someone’s name on it. The person tears off the paper hoping to discover a big present that will provide a level of satisfaction commensurate to his perceived size. But as the box reveals another smaller box hidden under the packing peanuts, he suspects someone is playing a joke on him as he realizes from the sheer weight of the box. As he keeps on opening another box, then another one, he finally opens the last tiny box and no matter what the value of the present, it leaves him or her with a sense of unfulfilled expectation and diminished satisfaction. Here in brief is how the acquiring and enjoying of material things which are supposed to fulfill our lives from the cradle to the grave end up being a great disappointment and a snare in the end. Not so with the present from our God, the free gift of salvation available to any one willing to accept it.

Now, imagine that you received the gift of God in a small box. After receiving and opening the gift,once your life is changed by that spiritual tiny seed, you realize that as you grow, the gift keeps on growing as you learn and mature into eternal everlasting life, the box of our life, so to speak, getting bigger and bigger.
Now considering another angle to giving and sharing presents. Jesus talking about greed said that life doesn’t consist in the abundance of things. Luke 12:15.

And He told the people to not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21.Jesus is not only talking about treasures, but incorruptible treasures! What is He talking about?

He means treasures like the Christian virtues, generosity of spirit, goodness, mercy, humility, faith, wisdom, spiritual knowledge, love, patience, fruits of the Spirit, all intangible, but whose effects are felt when translated into good works and service to our brothers, sisters and fellow man. Everything that will become the stones building the foundation of our sphere of influence in the coming kingdom.

Let's look at I Timothy 6: 18 in which Paul tells Timothy to "Command those who are rich in this present world... to put their hope in God who richly provide us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up for themselves a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life".  It is obvious that one can build a house or a building only as tall and as large as the dimensions of the foundation supporting it, otherwise the building collapses.  

Jesus is talking about treasures that have their beginning as an intangible seed beginning here on the earth and continuing in Heaven and/or enjoying all the stages of the growth of the seed in two dimensions simultaneously, in the physical body while at the same time in the invisible realm of the spirit.In the Bible we can find several mentions of this manifestation of life as encapsulated in the title of Our Lord who is the Alpha, the beginning, the first and Omega, the last, the end and of course everything in between.
We can find the image of the seed in I Peter 1:23. “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and abiding word of God.”Isaiah 9:6-7 promise of the coming Messiah follows this development: "for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest upon His shoulders…there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace."
Salvation, knowledge and wisdom are part of the incorruptible treasures that Christ talks about in Matthew.

Talking about Christ, Isaiah 33:6 declares: “He will be a sure foundation for our times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge: The fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.” This salvation which starts as a spiritual seed of the Word of God, the gospel of good news planted by the Holy Spirit Himself in the hearts of men who have received Him on His terms is ever expanding and revealing the loving heart of our Heavenly Father at this time of the year and all year long.

Paul prays for the Ephesians in Ephesians 3:14-17 that: "He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." This is also my prayer for all of us today and for the coming year.

Contrary to the philosophy of this passing and dying world, the present of eternal life in Christ Jesus starts as a tiny seed that contains all that is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which our Father and Creator put us on this earth.
I invite you to remember with grateful and humble hearts, that the tiniest and most humble manifestation of life, a human seed, a tiny baby in his or her mother's womb is infinitely precious and worthy of protection and nurturing because it was made in God’s image. Psalm 139.]

Also this Christmas season until the beginning of 2011 and beyond, I invite you also to reflect not only on the baby Jesus in the arms of Mary, but to let our hearts and minds expand our panorama onto other amazing dimensions of life and their meaning and consider all the stages of the life of the Savior in His birth, His death, His resurrection, His going back into the glory of Heaven and His coming back to give us glorified bodies, for we have already been resurrected if we have been born again, starting as a tiny seed wrapped up in a small and fragile package that we all are, as pilgrims on this earth.

Jean-Louis